WPC Authenticated Solution For Secured Wireless Charging

The new OPTIGA Trust Charge meets Qi 1.3 wireless charging standard and is suitable for charging small and portable electronic devices

While wireless charging is convenient and popular in demand, an inaccurate power supply can be harmful to the handheld’s battery lifetime and, in the worst case, the user as well. 

Therefore, for secured inductive, wireless charging, the new OPTIGA Trust Charge is a solution that is usable for the Qi 1.3 wireless charging standard. It addresses chargers for small personal electronic devices like smartphones, earbuds, tablets, wearables or health tech devices with a charging power of up to 15 W.

Device authentication with OPTIGA Trust Charge helps to prevent damaging consumer devices with dangerous, fake chargers and protects consumer brands from reputation issues. 

WPC Certified

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) issues the Qi standard and tests and certifies devices accordingly. Over the last few years, Qi growth has been steady with millions of Qi devices in use. Although the majority of them are driven by smartphones, the number of wearables with inductive charging capability is growing continuously. The new 1.3 version of this standard mandates strong cryptographic authentication for wireless charging devices. The wireless charger can authenticate itself to the charging device and prove that it is Qi 1.3 certified. Only then will the device be charged with maximum power. 

The OPTIGA Trust Charge is a turnkey solution with full system integration support including embedded software, host software, a development board, a reference board and documentation for fast and easy design-in. It comes in a USON10-2 package (3×3 mm2) that is optimised for small devices and fits into any charging platform. It is ideal for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications with an extended temperature range of -40 degrees Celsius to +105 degrees Celsius

Furthermore, certificates and keys mandated by WPC have been implemented into the security chips at its secured production facilities. As such, security hardware prevents manufacturers from additional investment in security infrastructure.

Samples are available now from Infineon Technologies. Also, a special version for automotive applications will be launched in early 2021.

Infineon recommends at least EAL4+ certification on the hardware that stores keys and certificates. For that the protection profiles PP0035 and PP0084 could be used as part of the evaluation. 

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